Being in Ben Tre

Ben Tre was a whole different beauty altogether. Ho Chi Minh in itself was a restless city, always active, everything was always on the move, it was industrial and happening and the people... surprisingly, very relaxed for a city. Unlike Singapore (where i come from) where everybody, and i mean everybody, from children to working adults and the aunties and uncles (Singapore Slang for elderly women and men) would rush from one end to another in an extremely fast speed. Which is why we Singaporeans have been called 'World's Fastest Walkers.' Click here to find out more. FYI, Singapore is not in China, we're in fact all the way down below, next to Malaysia.

ANYWAYS, Ben Tre is a province of Vietnam, it is one of the country's southern provinces, situated in the delta of the Mekong River. And i... had the wonderful opportunity to stay there for 3 1/2 days :)

Once my group and i settled down at Dai An Hotel (it's a wonderful place by the way, rooms are comfortable with its own private toilet), we headed for Cho Xep village by car. Once we've reached the village, we had a welcome briefing from the village chief.

Afterwards, we headed for the village where we had to carry out our project. Our project was about researching the village area, that is located in a forested area and look for solutions that can help their quality of life. Even though we're students, we're putting our best thinking caps on to accomplish this.

Here was the entry way, because it was our first time here, we had a guide to walk us through the paths to various houses.

Here is the water bed where they get water from to shower (another source being rain water) because the precious water that they purified themselves (using a chemical like substance) can only be used for drinking because its very limited. Till now though, i'm still not sure if that substance would be safe in the long run but it was all they had to attain clean drinking water from :(

The villagers, especially the children, treated this place like a swimming pool, happily swimming along and subtly inviting us to join in. To be honest, it was quite tempting~

What struck me most about the place would be the mass amount of litter everywhere. Everywhere you look, there's plastic bags, bottles, scraps of inedible food, etc. 

They do not have a proper disposal area, much less a pick up truck to clear the rubbish. Once a month or more, they would bring their own trash in one pile and burn it. The smell especially that comes out from burning plastic materials was the worst, it was like ammonia mixed with some deadly toxic chemical that makes you want to gag. 

Everytime we encountered a small water bed or big hole on the floor, there would usually be a plank of wood (sometimes trunks of trees) to get you through to the other side. Surprisingly, most of the planks are stable, not shaky like you'd expect it'd be. All it needs is some maintenance.

And even with cement bridges, there might be a hole.

But all these aren't a big concern for the villagers, it's like an out of electricity lamp among many or a small crack along the pavement. What i've learnt is that even though life can push us real hard and shit may be thrown at our faces, these people are living proof that one can still be positive and happy. Because life goes on and looking up and forward is the only best direction to go.

Photo Credit: Faiz